


Of heat waves and fireflies

by AlexZorlok



Category: Pandora Hearts
Genre: Fluff, Friendship, Gen, lazy afternoons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-27
Updated: 2019-10-27
Packaged: 2021-01-02 13:49:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21162671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlexZorlok/pseuds/AlexZorlok
Summary: Leo is reading, Elliot is leaning lazily against the wall. It's too hot and stuffy to want to do anything else at all.





	Of heat waves and fireflies

**Author's Note:**

> Still written in 2016, but I think it's one of the better ones.

Outside the Nightray mansion walls stood unbelievable frowst. Those were the final days of June, the sun so intense it could as well burn everything. It was fair to say that it wasn’t that much better inside the walls: Elliot was sat on the floor, his shirt shamelessly unbuttoned for the most part — luckily for him, Leo was the only other person in the room, and Leo wasn’t going to lecture him about that, maybe only tease him a little, — the window nearest to him was wide opened, and there was ice cream melting on the bedside table. Elliot honestly couldn’t remember the last time he had felt so gross during a heat wave.

Leo, on the contrast, didn’t seem too bothered. He was sitting across from him, a bow tie loose on his neck, a thick book in his lap. Elliot was almost jealous of his stamina: he would have loved to read something himself, but, the moment he took one of the ‘Holy Knight’ volumes from the shelf, words blurred out in front of him.

“Leo?” he reached out to check the title of the book Leo had been reading. He was actually curious: what could capture his full attention at a time like this? His guess was ‘anything, anything at all’.

He pulled on a loose strand of Leo’s hair to try and switch his attention to him instead, but Leo only just flinched, tilting his head to another shoulder. Elliot frowned, but it was too hot for him to actually speak up or express his discontentment in any way other than just that. Whatever. He didn’t care.

The birds outside kept singing their cheerful songs, but somehow the rustle of turning book pages remained the loudest sound in the room. Elliot lazily turned his head back towards Leo, thinking that, maybe, he could allow himself another attempt. He had nothing to lose, right? And either way, he couldn’t just sit there all day, watching the forgotten ice cream melt.

“Do you want to go swimming?”

There was a river not so far away from the mansion. It flowed all the way through the woods, and taking a dive in it would definitely be more refreshing than any bowl of ice cream he could get. Leo, however, remained silent, his eyes not leaving the book either.

“I've been thinking,” he started, at last, “that we could take a walk later in the evening. When the heat has gone down.”

“So exactly how long are you going to sit here for?”

Elliot threw a quick glance onto the clock. It was a little past five in the evening, a decent hour past afternoon, which, for Elliot, was good enough.

“How long exactly? Until it's dark.” he finally lifted his eyes, staring Elliot down, “What is it, Elliot? It was impossible to get you to go outside just a week ago.”

It wouldn't stop raining a week ago. Elliot was tempted to point it out, but instead he just groaned and mumbles something under his breath, not that Leo cared enough to decipher that. Nightray then proceeded to lean back against that same wall, cursing the heat. Not that he was going to do anything about that, not without Leo: that had become the main rule of his life.

It had been around half an hour before he realized that 'until it's dark' is quite a big thing to say when it came to summer. What time did it get dark during summer time? Not before 10pm or so, and it was still a quarter to 6pm. Oh, well.

By precisely six in the evening Elliot did stand up, although with a lot of grumbling, walking around the room with no real purpose. Sometimes, he would glance back at Leo, just to frown. Leo sat still, unbothered, as if there were no weather conditions whatsoever that would make him want to move— or want to complain about not wanting to move. It was getting, annoying, really, especially in the heat. But no, it wasn't about the heat anymore — with the window still opened, Elliot could feel the air slowly cooling down, and the breeze kept filling the room, — it was about the way Leo refused to do anything whatsoever, anything at all, not before twilight.  _ 'Oh, I'm reading, Elliot, can't you humour yourself until the evening comes?' _ Elliot just kept groaning and walking around the room.

It was seven o'clock when he threw the 'Holy Knight' aside again. Leo's irritating behaviour was driving him crazy — which was, to be fair, something his servant was the best at, — and nothing, not even Edwin's holy bravery, could stop his thoughts from wandering back to that fact. What was it with him and 'getting dark', anyway? If he wanted to take a walk when the heat is no longer torturous, then it was about the time!

Elliot played a few round of chess with Vincent. He didn't know where his brother had been the entire day, but he figured he's better off without needing to know. When he came back to his room, the pile of books around Leo had gotten bigger: it felt as if he wasn't so much into reading as he was into building some kind of a fort or a wall around him out of those books.

“...do you wanna play?” Elliot asked, not really expecting an answer, but then it hit him that he actually should have had offered that hours ago.

Leo, indeed, raised his head from the pages and nodded in agreement. Well, there was nothing he loved more than books and music, was there?

They played a few of their favourites, and somehow Elliot ended up in bed, one of his arms hanging off of the edge, his eyes focused on Leo, who had returned back to his beloved spot. He had too much pride in him to ask Leo to read him something out loud, so, naturally, Leo did anyway. Elliot didn't remember falling asleep.

“...Elliot? El-li-ot!” he could hear someone sighing into his ear, “Well, that’s inconvenient...”

Elliot groaned slightly, slowly opening his eyes. It was dark and quiet in the room, and it seemed that Leo had actually bothered to close the window at some point, because he couldn’t hear the bugs nor birds anymore. There were a couple of candles lit on the windowsill now to give some light into the room, and Elliot wasn’t sure what hour that was, but it did, for sure, get dark at last.

“...What is it?”

“Ah, Elliot,” Leo shook his head, and Elliot could feel him smiling, “Weren’t you the one so willing to go for a walk, now?”

Elliot snorted.

“Oh, so now is the right time for you, huh?”

“C’mon, get up, and let’s go,” Leo murmured, stretching his hand to help him stand up, “I need to show you something.”

It was actually quite cold outside, not at all like the heat wave that surrounded them throughout the day. Elliot shivered the first minute, but the fresh air filling his lungs felt better than anything, and even though he still wanted to sleep, he actually felt himself smiling up at the dark side. There was something out there, something uplifting.

He followed Leo to the woods behind the mansion, not bothering to ask any details. Leo would hardly tell, but he trusted him fully, so that wasn’t a problem. The spirit of adventure that came with the whispering of bushes and grasshoppers in them was attractive, Elliot kept looking around, lazily, seeing if he could find anything in the dark. Leo was walking straight ahead, not looking back at him, and with every passing minute Elliot was getting more and more curious as of what his dear friend could have hidden in the depths of the woods. It was Leo, after all. Leo had his special quirks.

“Here.”

They made it to an open field when Leo stopped, tugging Elliot with him by the sleeve of his shirt. They both raised their heads to look into the sky.

Hundreds and hundreds of fireflies were flying around the bushes. They would float above the grass, some passing each other over and over, as if having a conversation, up and down, left and right, so quick and so balanced it made an impression of not something real and simple, but of mysterious, golden lights filling the space and the air.

Elliot stared, for a moment, not knowing what to say. Still dazed, he blurted out:

“...did you bring me here so that we can look at the bugs?” what followed was a sound of great disappointment leaving Leo’s mouth.

“You’re such a fool, Elliot,” he shook his head again, “Absolute lamebrain.”

Elliot huffed. Leo kneeled down for a moment, still watching the fireflies passing each other, so Elliot stood still, watching him instead, his arms crossed on his chest. When at last Leo stood up, Elliot wasn’t entirely sure what to make out of his expression.

“...Alright, let’s go home.”

Elliot found himself counting stars on their way back, not that it was in any way possible: he was pretty sure he kept just counting the same single star. Leo kept silent beside him. The breeze and the air got rid off any sleep in Elliot’s eyes, and he didn’t know what he was even going to do once both of them return home.

“Hey… Leo?” he felt a hand on his back before the words left his mouth, and in the next moment—

He felt his legs betraying him, his body hitting the water— 

“Leo!”

The one was standing on the edge of the river, innocence looking at Elliot through the glasses, completely ignoring his master’s angry, soaked face.

“What’s wrong, Elliot?” he tilted his head to the side, and Elliot didn’t see in the dark, but he was sure he was smiling, “I thought you wanted to go swimming.”

“You—”

Neither of them felt hot anymore though.


End file.
